To Anywhere-land

Being with Tepuq Sinah Rang is quite an adventure. She's always spontaneous about what we will do for the day. There are no fixed plans, but just on-the-spot decisions about where to go and what to do.

Whenever I ask her what we were going to do for the day, she will answer "Like yesterday, you will cucuk manik, bead." So we beaded and this was our routine for about a week.

However, one morning, when asked what we will be doing, she said we were going out. When asked where, she answered "Anywhere!"

Few minutes later, she came in a set of changed clothes and she asked me to change.

I couldn't have guessed any better, but put on my arm gloves since she was in long sleeves. 

I came back upstairs and she looked at me and asked "Yesus?" (Yesus means Jesus in Malay)

I was completely stunned and I just stood in front of her looking lost for a couple of seconds, thinking if I should be saying a prayer in Malay since she mentioned the word Jesus.

And not knowing what she meant, I answered "Downstairs."

Thankfully, she was walking down with me and she put on her boots. Immediately I knew she meant "Your shoes." So I went and got my pair of trusty Kampung Adidas (rubber shoes).

I came out, and the next thing she said to me "Go upstairs to the manik room and take the hat."

Since she said we were going "Anywhere", I thought to myself, maybe she was going to show another Tepuq or a friend, her progress on the making of the traditional Kelabit hat, pata.

So, being the complete blur case, I took the pata that she was still working on, and stood outside waiting for her to take me to "Anywhere."

She must have gotten the shock of her life because when she saw me, she immediately said "Eh, nooo! Take this hat. (While pointing to the hat she was wearing)"

I quickly ran back up to place the pata back to where it initially was and then ran downstairs to the girls' dorm to retrieve my cap from my suitcase, because all the hats in the room were too fancy for a klutz to put on.

We got on her motorbike and we headed to a jungle nearby. She taught me to pluck tengahyan, a jungle vegetable which is really delicious. 

Also, she got bamboo shoots for our lunch and dinner.

She demonstrated her strength in using a parang to cut the outer layers of the bamboo and only take what is edible for us. No doubt, she's really stronger than most of us. 

Tepuq, I am truly sorry for giving you a complete blank face many times. 

Thank you for showing me the other part of the world, a jungle farm. Life is truly interesting with you and I enjoyed my trip to anywhere-land with you. If there was a place as such in the city where I reside in, I would absolutely love to take you there and find green treasures that would be our meal together.